


Loose Ends

by NamelesslyNightlock



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Arson, BAMF Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, BAMF Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Banter, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Coffee, Families of Choice, Fear, Fire, Handcuffs, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Sex, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicky | Nicolò di Genova are in Love, Kidnapping, M/M, Nile Freeman Deserves A Break, POV Nile Freeman, Protective Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Protective Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Rescue Missions, Swords, Teasing, Tired Andy | Andromache of Scythia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26529328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock
Summary: Nile’s captured, alone, and zip-tied to a chair. But while her rescuers are not particularlyconventional,she can’t deny that they’re effective.(...or, one in which Joe keeps tightening Nicky’s handcuffs, and Nicky only complains about it a little.)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova
Comments: 54
Kudos: 538





	Loose Ends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FereldenTurnip](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FereldenTurnip/gifts).



> This one was prompted by **FereldenTurnip** , and while I imagine it's not quite what you were looking for, it's the fic that wanted to be written. Thank you for sharing your idea ❤︎

Nile wasn’t sure that she’d ever felt fear like this before.

When they’d first caught her, she’d been fairly blasé—after all, it wasn’t like they could kill her. Wasn’t like they could hurt her in a way that mattered.

But when one of the men’s knives had run a line across her arm and the cut had healed… well. That had been enough to remind her of just how much danger she was in.

They didn’t notice it, she was sure of that, but she tried to twist her arm in its zip-tie, tried to hide the clear skin against the chair she was bound to.

After all, yeah, it wasn’t like they could kill her. But they _could_ realise what she was, what she could do—and she’d seen the consequences of that first hand on her very first day with the team.

She remembered her dreams of Quynh, of the woman who had been stuck under the ocean for hundreds of years, of her raw pain and piercing madness. She remembered the ache of Joe’s expression as Nicky had roughly explained that out of all the horrors in the world, _capture_ was their greatest fear.

And then, Nile felt a deep cold cut right down to her core.

She tried to keep quiet, not wanting to do anything that would gain their ire. Thankfully, her captors – whoever the hell they were – seemed more intent on getting to the others. From what she could gather from what they risked saying within earshot, they’d recognised Nicky and Joe—and had grabbed Nile because she’d made the easier target as she’d strayed from the others at the market. God, she’d been such an idiot.

And now, here she was, zip-tied to a freaking chair, and with no foreseeable way of getting out.

There were four men, spread the room, armed, and wearing tactical gear. It would be hard, but not impossible. She had thought about tugging at the tight ties on her wrists– she could heal a dislocated thumb, after all – but the things must have been a proper grade because she couldn’t budge them an inch. She was just about consider dislocating a whole shoulder to at least get out of the chair when a few sharp words cut across the tense hotel room.

“Got another one.”

She _knew that voice._

It was harder than she normally heard it, all harsh edges rather than soft smiles, but she still instinctively knew it.

Yet, when her gaze snapped to the door, she didn’t see Joe—she saw _Nicky,_ his hands behind his back and his expression beyond stormy as he was led inside the trashy room by a guy wearing the same full-on tactical gear as the ones who had brought her in.

She blinked.

“Nice work,” one of the four men grunted. They didn’t seem to think that there was anything amiss. “Put him with the other one.”

The man holding Nicky gave a jerked nod, his face hidden by the goddamn helmet and faceguard, as if they were all riot police. Nicky was glowering, and his jaw tightened as the man dragged him over to the chair that had been pulled up next to Nile.

Nile tried to catch Nicky’s gaze, but Nicky seemed to be too busy glaring to notice.

He was shoved into the chair with rough hands that looked to linger at his shoulders before sliding down his back—and due to the angle Nile couldn’t see behind Nicky’s chair, but whatever the guy was doing was suspicious enough that one of the other men questioned it.

“I’m just tightening his cuffs.” It was Joe—it _had_ to be Joe, Nile knew that voice, especially since there was now a line of amusement running under the hard surface. “We wouldn’t want him getting free.”

Nicky muttered something under his breath, but it was too quiet to hear.

Another grunt from the couch. “We need the others. There’s two more.”

“Three.” A shrug from the man sitting on the edge of the bed, the one who had an impressive knife resting across his lap. Nile’s arm itched at the reminder. “Last time, there were three men, one woman. So three left.”

“You remember them from a last time?” It was Joe who asked, though Nile couldn’t see him. He was still behind Nicky.

“You don’t?” The man on the bed looked up. His face was hidden just the same as all the rest, but from his tone, Nile would hazard a guess that he was frowning.

“Oh, yeah, of course.” Joe finally stepped around in front of Nicky, his hands held loosely behind him. Nile almost smiled to see that his sword was strapped to his back—lower than usual, so it was more of a hinderance to movement but impossible to see from in front.

Nile doubted that he planned on wearing it for long.

Indeed, the man on the bed seemed somewhat suspicious, as far as it was possible to tell. He stood, his knife shifting to his right hand.

“What is your name?” he asked, the question directed at Joe. “Because I know for damn sure that Kyle would have remembered the fuckers that killed our friends.”

“I suppose you won’t believe me if I say my name _is_ Kyle?” Joe asked.

“Sorry,” the guy said. “But no.” He raised his knife, flung it in a single, feral throw—

And it hit Joe’s shoulder with a solid _thump._ He flinched, winced, _swore._ Nile didn’t have to wonder why Joe hadn’t tried to dodge it. Nicky was sitting right behind him, after all.

“Well, shit,” Joe said, pulling the knife from his shoulder and dropping it to the ground with a groan. “Unfortunately, this makes things rather simple.”

And, well.

It didn’t really take long after that. 

Joe lurched forward as the guy to the right pulled out a gun, sword swinging through the air before Nile had even seen him draw it—and in less than a second, the man was on the ground and his blood was splattered over the wall, the red streak forming almost a perfect arc.

The other two had drawn their weapons as the one who’d lost his knife scurried back, and Joe didn’t waste any time. He used the velocity of his previous swing to turn on his heel, sword flashing in the dim light—and he had another impaled in a moment.

Meanwhile Nicky had managed to get to his feet, though to Nile’s surprise, he was still cuffed. She’d have guessed that Joe would have cut them off when he was fiddling behind Nicky’s chair, earlier. But hands tied behind his back or not, Nicky seemed to be doing fine regardless—he barrelled straight into the man who had his gun aimed at Joe, knocking him right to the ground. They were just a pile of kicking legs and angry shouts for a moment, until Joe grabbed Nicky by the arm, pulled him upright – twisted and all but _threw_ him at the guy coming in from behind – and then stabbed the dude on the floor.

Nicky got that last one – the one from before who had now managed to procure another weapon – with a well-placed kick to the groin. The man dropped his gun and bent over, groaning, and that just put his head in the perfect spot for Nicky to get him again, shoe connecting with skull.

“You shouldn’t have thrown that knife,” Nicky said, standing over the fallen man—and then his foot slammed down hard.

The body twitched once, then lay still.

Joe groaned as he pulled off the helmet, shaking his head as if the thing had been stuffy. “Well, that was easy.”

Nicky was staring at Joe with an expression that Nile couldn’t quite decipher, and to be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to.

Joe grinned as he caught Nicky’s eye, but went straight to Nile instead.

“Are you doing all right?” he asked.

“Yeah, great,” she said. “I guess I can cross getting kidnapped off the bucket list.”

“Bit late for a bucket list, isn’t it?”

“Maybe. But I’m trying to get in all the experience I can, you know?”

Joe chuckled at that, and got to work. Thankfully, he _had_ brought something a little more delicate than his sword. Nile’s cuffs _were_ tight, and she rather didn’t fancy finding out whether or not she could grow back severed limbs. The thin diagonal pliers did the trick, and she was standing and stretching in seconds. 

“Thanks,” she said.

Joe grinned. “No problem.”

“Joe.” Nicky’s eyes were hard, but, Nile was still pretty sure she wasn’t reading them right. “I am still cuffed.”

“You mean you can’t get out of them yourself?” Joe asked, his face a picture of absolute innocence as he stepped away from Nile and seemed to slide over toward his partner. “Nicky, I thought better of you.”

“You are going to regret this, Joe,” Nicky replied, something of a groan in his words.

“Oh, I really doubt that.”

Nicky tilted his head, almost birdlike with equal inquisitiveness and suspicion. He was difficult to read, he always had been, but by now it was hardly a chore for Nile to work out what was going on.

Joe seemed to both take his time and yet he slipped closer to Nicky seamlessly, his free hand lifting before running down Nicky’s arm and around behind his back. They were side on to Nile, and she could see the way that his fingers played along the edge of the zip-tie cuffs before curling around the loose end.

“I don’t think I tightened these enough,” Joe hummed, leaning in close to brush his nose over the line of Nicky’s cheek. “Hold still for me?”

“ _Joe.”_

The name was whispered, something gentler running through it than just mere annoyance. And Nile could just see the edge of Joe’s lips turning up to a smile before he pressed them to Nicky’s, his grip at Nicky’s wrists tightening.

The moment just felt… intimate, to the point where watching made her feel like a voyeur. It was often like that, with Nicky and Joe—they were never outright openly physical, they were just… heartbreakingly soft.

Shaking the thought from her mind, Nile instead focused her attention on what needed to be done. They could hardly leave the hotel a bloodbath—and they really, really had made something of a mess. There were crimson pools all across the brightly patterned carpet, and the furniture looked like it had been used on the set of _The Shining._

Nile grimaced, and glanced around, searching for a mop, or a towel, or… _something._ Even though she knew that any attempt would be useless. There was just entirely too much.

“Oh, don’t worry about the blood,” Joe called out. “We can fix it.”

She glanced round to see that the pair had separated—and Nicky was rubbing his wrists. The red marks were already rapidly fading, and his scowl was quite clearly performative, given the smile that lingered in the twitch of his lips.

“He’s right,” Nicky agreed. “We have… something of an age-old method.”

Joe’s smile widened. “I think you’ll like it.”

From the spark in their eyes, Nile was fairly sure she should be worried.

—~—

“There is something beautiful about the sight of a flame against the night sky,” Nicky hummed, his eyes shining in the orange light of the blazing fire.

“You know, I did wonder if you guys were insane when I met you,” Nile commented, turning to them slightly but not quite able to tear her gaze from the scene before her. “I’m no longer wondering.”

Joe snorted. “Come on Nile, you can’t deny that it looks impressive.”

Well, yeah, she supposed. _Impressive_ was one word for an entire hotel – even if it was only a small one – being expertly set aflame with a few bottles of whiskey and a lighter.

“I’m thinking of the property damage.”

“The insurance will probably be worth more than what the business makes,” Joe said—and then he clasped her shoulder. “The owner will be fine, and there weren’t any other guests. Not surprising, really.”

“We’re lucky that these people were so terrible at picking a hideout,” Nicky said, his tone one of agreement. “Terrible at everything, come to think of it.”

“Who were they?” Nile asked.

“I think they may have been that group in Dubai about three years ago,” Nicky said. “There was something about a virus… and a hard drive?”

“It’s always a hard drive these days,” Joe sighed. Nile was about to ask if they meant a real virus or, like, the computer kind, but Joe continued before he she got the chance. “I think you might be right. We must have missed a few when we cleaned house.”

“Probably because they had been kept out of the action.” Nicky almost sounded like he might have been rolling his eyes. “They could not have been well trained.”

Nile found herself relaxing, their almost disappointed tones giving her a surprising amount of comfort. Her fear had long since melted away, gone the moment she realised that she wasn’t alone—and standing there now, she felt entirely safe.

Maybe one day she would become more blasé about being captured, more able to shrug it off as something that just _happened._ Hadn’t she thought, when they’d caught her, that they couldn’t hurt her in a way that mattered?

If they’d found out who she was… well, Joe had started the fight when he’d been stabbed. She supposed that they didn’t want to leave any loose ends a second time around.

Nile didn’t know the history of the guys who had captured her, didn’t know where they sat on the sliding scale of bad, good, and grey. But it was clear that they had little to no compunctions about violence, and besides… she trusted Nicky and Joe. She was sure they made the right call.

And there was still one thing that she felt she had yet to do.

“Hey guys?”

They were on either side of her and turned at her question. Nicky looked patient; Joe curious.

“Thank you,” she said, giving it more feeling than the small slice of gratitude she’d offered when Joe had cut her free. “For coming to get me.”

“Of course,” Nicky replied, his voice as soft as Joe’s matching smile, the words given as nothing less than matter of fact. “That’s what you do for family.”

And as the sound of sirens began to fill the air and they shot away from the scene in a truly sad looking car, Nile felt a smile of her own spread across her face.

—~—

Nile woke the next morning with that odd kind of drowsiness, and it took her a moment to remember exactly what had gone down.

God, some of it felt like half a dream—

 _Especially_ when she walked into the kitchen to find Nicky fiddling with the coffee machine, and Andy sitting bleary-eyed at the counter.

Joe was nowhere to be seen.

“Good morning Nile,” Nicky said, his lips turned up into something that was far too bright for the hour. “Coffee?”

“Always.” Nile slumped beside Andy, who was watching Nicky with the kind of vague focus that suggested she too was waiting for a dose of caffeine. Unsurprising, really—they _had_ spent all night driving, getting away from that town. "Joe still asleep?"

"Completely out." Nicky smiled as he said it.

It wasn’t long before mugs were slid in front of them, and Nile grasped hers with slightly more than the usual level of neediness. She took the first gulp before offering any thanks, uncaring that it was hot enough to sting the tip of her tongue.

“You’re welcome,” Nicky replied.

It was easy, _domestic,_ and it seemed almost ludicrous that just hours earlier they had been speeding away from smoke and sirens. Was this what her life had turned into?

Before her tired mind could quite catch up with that thought, however, a yell exploded from the direction of the bedrooms.

“ _Nicolò di Genova,_ torna subito qui!”

The shouting continued, but Nile’s eyes were immediately on Nicky.

There was something sharp in his eyes, bright and wolfish. “I’ll be there in a moment, amore mio,” he replied, loud enough for Joe to be able hear. “Just… hang _tight.”_

Nile heard some words she didn’t know, but could infer from the context and tone that they were probably some seriously impressive swears.

“Oh, you didn’t,” Nile said.

Nicky’s expression remained almost blank as he spoke, yet he seemed bursting with amusement. Maybe Nile was getting better at reading him. “Joe took more than one pair of cuffs off the man we got your location from. It seemed a shame to waste them.”

“ _Okay,_ ” Andy groaned, grabbing her coffee and pulling it toward her almost protectively. “Nile, I think it’s time we go.”

Nile didn’t need to be told twice—she followed Andy’s example and chugged her coffee before immediately heading for the door on Andy’s heels, grabbing her coat as she went.

After all, no matter how close they had become… there are just some things you really don’t need to hear your family doing.

**Author's Note:**

> Hold Tight (link below) is the nsfw sequel, for anyone who wants it ❤︎

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hold Tight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26544514) by [NamelesslyNightlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock)




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